Corruption and Transformation in a Developing Economy

By Chima B. Ukwuije

This is a contemporary book for everyone, but it is more relevant to those who wish to know why we say corruption is an enemy to the society, how it starts, what propels it, and what the society suffers as a result of corruption. It is not an over expectation for the workers to look up to their manager and the citizens to look up to the elected politicians for welfare projects because according to the book, the primary responsibility of democratic governments, especially in developing economies, is the protection of lives and properties of her citizens, providing welfare schemes and creating an enabling ground for her citizens to strive for their self-development. Corruption has rubbed us of all these. The citizens entrusted their collective will in the hands of the elected politicians believing that they will make the society a better place to live, but in return, we have a society tightly dotted with terrorists and politically motivated attacks on the innocent citizens. The country became difficult for an average man to survive in, leading to irregular migration even to less developing economies where, at least, they can be sure of security.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jul 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728390031

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© 2019 Ukwuije, Chima B. All rights reserved.

Illustrations in this book are done by William Okeke

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/01/2019

ISBN: 978-1-5462-9929-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-9003-1 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgement

List of Tables

List of Figures

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1 Nigeria and her stance in the international system

Nigeria’s distinctive features from the Developed Societies

Characteristics of a developing society

Characteristics of Prismatic society and the similarities in Nigeria

Development

Essential focus of development and the capitalist hindrance

Who promotes corruption in Nigeria and Africa at large?

Nigerian borrowing pattern and its consequences on transformation

New Economic Order Posture on balance of payment solution: What IMF and World Bank potends

Nigerian Image Perception

The possibility of a zero corrupt society

Chapter 2 Corruption and the Theoretical Perspective

Where does corruption start and where does it end?

Stage 1 Decision / Policy making stage

Stage 2 Implementation / execution stage

Stage 3 Evaluation and appraisal stage

Corruption and Some Theoretical Foundations

Method of corruption measurement

Measuring corruption in Nigeria using the media, and government publications

Types of Corruption in Nigeria

Origin of Boko Haram

Corruption, Violence and the Law

Evidence by certificate

Chapter 3 Transformation in an emergent economy: The pathway

Priority Policies for the Development of Education

Priority Policies and Projects for the Development of the Health Sector

Priority Policies and Projects for Labour and Productivity

Priority policy for infrastructure development - Power

Information and communication technology

Niger Delta

Elements of the transformation agenda

Objectives of the transformation agenda

Chapter 4 Corruption and the Transformation Agenda

Chapter 5 Corruption in practice, who is free?

Why Corruption?

Chapter 6 Achievements of the Transformation Agenda

Power Sector

Education Sector

Employment Generation

Poverty, health, hunger and development (Ph2d)

Women Affair

Women for Change Initiative (WCI) – Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan

Chapter Seven The injury of corruption

Objectives of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007

Objectives of the Due Process Policy

Conclusion

Suggestions

References

Appendixes

PREFACE

This book was written with the utmost zest to make people understand that the issue of corruption in governance, public and private institutions, as well as the larger society has been over-flogged in Nigeria. Considering the way it is vigorously talked about the situation seems to remain unchanged. Every year, Nigeria keeps ranking high in the corruption perception index globally, yet, there exist a plethora of agencies charged with the responsibility of checking corruption. President Goodluck Jonathan, during his administration, came up with a well-articulated and all encompassing programme called Transformation Agenda, but this instrument of disintegration, disunity and underdevelopment did not permit the full realization of its objectives due to corruption. As a result, the people suffered, the economy suffered, the political system suffered. There was insecurity eveywhere, intimidation, torture, killing, maiming, raping, destruction, etc. So, this is why we have been suffering.

We are suffering the effects of corruption because of the mistakes we made. Mistake of the father is a trendy saying in traditional sphere but in the political milieu, I refer to the mistakes we made as the mistakes of the electorates. We wrongly assumed that all winners are leaders. Mistakingly too, we assumed that oratory prowess is the ultimate leadership skill required to be good leader. We elected into the legislative chambers, people who will only go there to defend myopic ethnic and religious interests. Some will even not make any meaningful contribution in all their day-to-day delibrations. They are only there to showcase their well-tailored and nicely-designed executive dresses with their golden pen hanging on their breast pockecks. The mistake we made was that, though silence may be good answer to the foolishman’s question, but in all honesty, it does not and should not always be taken to mean wisdom. Sometimes, it could be the shortest escape route for a fool. Sometimes too, it could mean a foolishman’s answer to a foolishman’s question. All these mistakes and many more gave birth to the corruption we are seeing today both in government, public and private establishments. The same corruption that hidered the realisation of the objectives of the transformation agenda.

The success of every developmental programme depends largely on the rationality behind the selection of the priority items, the financial will to execute the programme and the credibility of the individuals responsible for its implementation. A situation where the national coffers is being looted on regular intervals by people who are supposed to be trusted with the implementation of the government development programmes, by people in highly rated public offices, by people trusted with the management of private business empire, by people who are supposed to be responsible for the security of lives and properties of the citizens, then transformation like that of Goodluck Jonathan and every other developmental efforts suffere retardation. This situation raised a clarion call for the restoration of sanity, sincerity, dedication and accountability in our systems. They should be enthroned and sustained in our political, administrative and economic systems as a way of supporting transformation even in our local communities and groups. It should not be left for the political leaders alone.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The best way to begin this acknowledgment is by expressing my unquantifiable gratitude to God Almighty, the giver of life, intellect, will and wisdom to engage in this academic, moral and development atuned exercise. I also wish to acknowledge all the people that contributed in different ways to the successful publication of this book, especially the authorities I consulted their works, I say a very warm thank you. With this work, I have realised that success is only for those that dare and without persistent hardwork, words such as improvement and development; achievement and fulfilment; success and joy are unjustly reduced to mere wishes.

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 The four cardinal social menace according the old regional structure

1.2 Timeline of attacks on Benue State and the neighbouring States from February 2013 - January 2018

1.3 Nigeria’s Public Debt Stock as atDecember 31, 2016 (in Millions)

1.4 Proportion of total ODA by region, 2004-5

1.5 Largest ODA recipient, 2005

1.6 Development indicators of the Developed and the Developing Nations

2.1. Nigeria corruption perception index 2000 - 2010

2.2 The main types of corruption indicators

2.3 Key features of measurement tools generation

2.4 Sources of data for corruption perception index

2.5: List of richest politician operating in banks in America

2.6: Violent deaths of some Christian clerics due to Islamist- (mainly Boko Haram) related attacks

2.7: Frequencies of Violent Death Incidents Involving Muslims and Christians (Religious and Non-Religious Issues)

2.8: Rich Pastors and their worth

2.9: Violent prevention institutions in Nigeria

3.1: Allocation by sector and MDAs under KPPP (2012 - 2015)

4.1: Misappropriated Fund by Ministries (2011)

4.2: Looted Money Discovered in Foreign Banks Before the 4th Republic

5.1: List of dubious deals during Obasanjo’s administration

5.2: Cash Recovery

5.4: Funds Awaiting Return from Foreign Jurisdiction

5.5: Non-Cash Recoveries (Farmlands, Plots of Land, Uncompleted Buildings, Completed Buildings, Vehicles and Maritime Vessels

5.6: Prominent persons killed by Boko Haram and unknown gunmen in 2012

5.7: Violent deaths of some Islamic clerics due to Islamist- (mainly Boko Haram) related attacks.

6.1 Enrolment into ECCDE

6.2 Distribution and location of the Almajiri schools in the country

6.3: Budgetary allocation to Education

6.4: Distribution of instructional materials for Almajiri Schools

6.5: Summary of Academic Staff Training and Development (AST&D)

6.6: Investment in Tertiary Education from 2009 - 2013 through TETFund

6.7: Capital Allocation Realeased to Federal Universities Through the National Universities Commission (NUC) Between 2009 - 2013

6.8: Nigerian Unemployment by Age

6.9: Nigeria unemployment rate and the percentage change from 2011 to 2016

6.10: Participation of female candidates in the 2011 general elections

6.11: Women Representation in 2003, 2007 and 2011 General Elections

6.12: Men and women in political positions in the 2015 general elections

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Victims of Fulani Herdsmen attacks

1 2: Mass burial for the victims of Benue killing by Fulani Herdsmen

1 3 People from different communities in Benue State, running away from their ancestral homes.

1.4 People from different communities in Benue State, running away from their ancestral homes.

1.5 Herdsman with sophisticated riffle

1.6 Mass burial of victims

1.8 Riggs typology of administrative systems in the underdeveloped, developing and developed societies. Source: Nishi (2011).

2.1 Corruption personified

2.2 Graphical representation of corruption and its ecological make-up

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

You know, it is pretty easy reading this book to see why I was angry and confused for all

these years.I lived my life being told different stories; some true, some lies and

I still don’t know which is which. Children are born innocent. At

birth we are very much like new harddrive - no viruses,

no bad information, no crap that has been downloaded

into us yet. It’s what we feed into that hard drive,

or in my case head drive that starts the

corruption of the files."

(Nikki Sixx 2007)

Right from the earliest time, man has always sought ways of settling the variety of challenges that try to weigh him down and drive him to schizophrenia. In this attempt, individuals who for one reason or the other, whether flimsy or genuine, could not control their instinct of greed have indulged in dishonest practices in public and private institutions. In Nigeria, several attempts have been made by social critics, political analysts, opinion moulders, and the mass media to expose the rotten nature of corruption in our society as a way of enthroning national transformation. Yet, it appears to be an acute recurring phenomenon in the philosophical and empirical description of our national life.

Corruption is a common characteristic feature of developing societies and Nigeria is no exception. This does not in any way negate the fact or depict that corruption is completely ruled out in any of its forms in the developed societies. Rather, in developing societies, it is as crystal and ubiquitous as the presence of human elements in the entire system. The type of corruption that aches the national economy and retards development is the one mostly found among the clergy, the elites, the high-profile political class, high-ranking public office holders and top businessmen. But in the Nigerian case, nobody is free! What is sometimes lacking is the systematic opportunity to plan and execute it. The frequent occurrences of corrupt practices result from too much desire to be where or what one is not, even when one is not qualified. We always do not have enough to satisfy our curiosity and insatiable wants; greed is the reason!

In Nigeria, there are also, two groups of people who in the real sense; do not belong to any of the aforementioned classes but their level of engagement in corrupt practices lacks a single-sentence description. To them, they are the Big Boys; Smart Men, and/ or the Sharp Guys, but to the society, they are the’Yahoo Boys’. This class of people are working so assiduously to liberate themselves from the shackles of lack. They want, to attain appreciable level of financial freedom by making sure they get rich quickly so that they can belong to that particular class of people the society respects and honours but not necessarily because of their intellectual achievement, or contribution to societal development but because of mundane encomium, which is poured on them ignorantly by the social public and unconscionable worshipers of wealth. By that, they become the toast of their respective communities. In fact, what is essentially lacking in their endeavour is sincerity, which by implication connotes truth, trust, respect and obedience.

The quest for money and what it can buy have made the fear of the Supernatural Being vanish in their spiritual and physical existence. Their philosophy of life can be easily predicted: a one-way thinking parttern. In public events, they try to hide themselves to avoid unnecessary attention by kidnappers, toothless and bribe-driven police officers, and even hoodlums of different gangs.

Why we refer to them as the Yahoo Boys is because there are some boys who are hell-bent on making sweat-less wealth through Internet fraud. But the recent trend is that even those who are seriously suspected of being involved in some other forms of corrupt practices, such as ritual killing, and blood sacrifice also claim to be Yahoo Boys. This nomenclature appears to be for an embellished social status because the society is corrupt. As a result we carelessly glorify wealthy people including those whose wealth we cannot trace, point at, or even imagine as identified with a genuine business.

In the 1980s and 1990s, it used to be just the money doublers (Ibu Alhaji). Later, we saw the emergence of the 419ers or OBT ("Obtain by Trick") as they were called. They took the centre stage in the social life of the people because of their unimaginable display of wealth, which attracted praise from all corners of the society. They were involved in so many atrocious activities but used 419 to cover it up, just like the Yahoo Boys of today. They were affluent, well connected and influential. They were demigods!

They were referred to as such until the outburst of the Otokoto saga, which started pitifully on Thursday, 19 September 1996, with a little boy of eleven years named Ikechukwu Okonkwo. As a matter of fact, young Ikechukwu was condemned to his no-destiny, routine business of hawking boiled groundnut around the city. With his infantile innocence, Ikechukwu was hawking his groundnut in the streets of Owerri. On reaching Amakohia, he was called by one Innocent Ekeanyanwu (Innocent indeed!) into the then famous Otokoto Hotel (owned by Chief Vincent Duru) and Ikechukwu freely went to answer him with a strong belief that he was called to the hotel to sell his groundnuts. Probably he had it in mind that he was going to make plenty of sales there and make plenty of money for his poor parents, only to realise later, when he had no mouth again to talk, that there was no innocence in Ekeanyanwu.

With a bottle of corrupted Coca-Cola in his hand, Ikechukwu was overly excited that he now had a new and very friendly customer. He was made to feel relaxed while gazing at the beautiful interior decor of the hotel, maybe trying to imagine how such an edifice was made possible. Within a short time, Ikechukwu fell aslep. Ordinarily, it was presumed to be a snooze, but he continued to go deeper and deeper into the sleep. The pinnacle of corruption at work was when the young boy got immersed in the induced sleep and was taken to one of the rooms in the hotel. What followed was such that was better imagined than experienced.

Ikechukwu was beheaded!

He was swiftly taken to the land of death (Never Never!) His whole body was dissected, with the vital organs well arranged. His head was put inside a nylon bag, ready for supply to the person who ordered it. Innocent Ekeanyanwu contracted a motorcyclist who was simply known as Opara, who took him to Eziama in Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo State so that he could hand it over to Chief Leonard Unogu, the person who definitely ordered it. Maybe Innocent wasted time or something more urgent came up so the chief travelled to Lagos. On hearing this, Innocent had to go back to Owerri, now in a 504 Peugeot saloon car. Opara had suspected strongly that what was in the nylon bag was a human head, so he alerted the police who were on roadblock. They intercepted Innocent and discovered that what was suspected was indeed in the suspected bag.

From that moment, police investigation started, although on a very slow pace and against the wishes of the watchful public. The day they were supposed to take the headless body to the mortuary, almost all the inhabitants of Owerri trooped out. Thick and heavy suspicion was hovering in the air, so they were keenly watching within and around the medical center to confirm if actually it was a ritual murder. Unexpectedly, the news came from the Imo State Television station. That news, coupled with the broadcasting of the image of the bodiless head, made the public go irate. Swiftly, they decided how to handle the situation. The 24th and 25th of September, 1996 witnessed serious rioting involving nearly every member of the society. They hunted the Otokoto clique and their properties. By the time this highly provoked mob was calmed down, it was discovered that, out of jungle justice, more than thirty buildings were knocked down, completely destroyed, and or looted. Numerous expensive cars were also burned down by the rioters.

Why this happened was not only because of the latest incident that violated the acceptable standard of friendship, livelihood, decency, morality, and society but because the Owerri people had been strongly suspecting that such unholy acts had been going on in the hotel. But they had no strong evidence adding to the glitzy height of influence the people who were in Otokoto’s clique commanded, so nobody could speak up. Moreso, it was expected that the scanty information that filtered into the ears of the security agents would have been enough to spark an investigation, but because this did not happen, the people suspected that the military government and some influential traditional rulers had hands in it. With that, the people got provoked. They believed the corrupt society which we live in, even the security agents, never cared to verify the sources of income of some of these large-living, extravagantly spending businessmen. While the investigation was on, more shallow graves were discovered in Otokoto Hotel.

Nigeria is a country where, even with such display of wealth, nothing can attract the attention of the government and the security agents to trace the real sources of income of such people, to ascertain if they are legitimate or not. They commit the unthinkable and go unpunished. Chief Awolowo said, the pursuit of wealth is not a bad thing in itself because without the food and comfort which wealth provides, life will be penurious and drab. But always remember that any wealth accumulated on a selfish basis, at the expense of the State in defence of social justice helps to create a disorganised society in which everybody will eat everybody, and no one person can be safe.

According to Eneh (2008) ‘instead of a free and democratic society, we have a militarized Nigerian society, with a great havoc done to the psych of the citizenry. For a just and egalitarian society, we have injustice and insecurity conundrum characterized by abuse, ritual murder and extra-judicial killing, cultism, hostage-taking, ethnic and religious riots. We are far from being united, strong and self-reliant; the Nigerian nation is divided along tribal and religious lines. Patriotism is an unpopular stranger in the Nigerians lexicon; the federal character and Nigerian factor having replaced merit and rights. Rather than offer bright opportunities for all citizens, Nigeria is a land of failed people, with corruption, kleptocracy and unemployment characterizing the country`s political leadership. Wrong reactions or response to this ugly situation include ‘brain-drain’. This was orchestrated by deep rooted and well planned corrupt actions within the system.

CHAPTER ONE

NIGERIA AND HER STANCE IN THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM

Nigeria suffers image problem due to endemic corruption in all facets of its national life.

Utterances of Nigerian leaders, the attitude of foreigners in their dealings with

Nigeria and Nigerians, recent developments where huge sums of money

were unearthed by Nigerian anti corruption agencies and general

conduct of national life and elections, all show that

corruption is endemic in Nigeria.

Onyegbadue, U. (2017)

In the international system, before this time, the real image and characteristic features of Nigeria used to appears a bit hidden. But because of the people who have taken their unholy smartness to overseas to dupe and deceive people who hitherto have trusts on them; coupled with the way our politicians and public officers are exporting fund which ordinarily should have been used for development purposes in the country, plus the advent of the social media which seems to help in no small measure to propagate the real image and features of the country - Nigeria to the larger world. Currently, partly as a result of increase in the level of corruption, poverty and hunger, insecurity, unemployment and misconception and misinterpretation of politics and democracy, Nigeria is identified by four cardinal social menace. This social menace is what some developing societies suffer and Nigeria being a developing country is equally facing it but the proportion or degree of its existence is what we are questioning. If countries that are not so much blessed with natural resources should suffer this, how then should Nigeria as much as it is blessed with natural resources, suffer this. Well, it is because we allowed corruption to blossom as a result of negligence on the part of the leadership who allowed the proceed of the oil boom to intoxicate them and the enormous power we ascribe to the leadership of this country. Most of the coups that occurred in Nigeria were in part, motivated by Bandwagon effect of corruption. Some soldiers saw that ascendance to the highest office in the country was an unmitigated access to the national treasury, where heap of uncountable fund was domicile. And as such, being the number one citizen of the country, by hook or by crook, automatically makes one a rich man. However, the four cardinal social menace as identified above are:

Table 1.1: The four cardinal social menace according the old regional structure